All 13 Civil District Courts have an allotment of two hours of my time each week, and the clerks can be contacted for times available.

Discovery

Attorneys need to contact the clerk or administrator for each Court for my settings. I require the parties to confer on all contested matters immediately before any hearing. If answers or briefs are filed to any motion being heard within two days of the hearing, the other side is normally allowed three days to respond in writing.

Pleadings & Motions

All responses should be filed three days before hearing for the Court to have the opportunity to review the response.

Briefs should include a short fact scenario, legal points and then cases should be attached, letter briefs accepted.

Inquire of the clerk of the Court for procedures for contacting the Court regarding the status of motions.

Pre-Trial Hearings / Hearing Docket

Specific policies relating to hearings are stated above, the most important item being that I require conferencing on all contested matters at or immediately before a hearing.

The clerk from each court will set the hearings, so you must contact them.

Attorneys desiring to appear by telephone must have prior approval from the Court. They must also have conferred with counsel as to each item to be heard as well as let them know that they are not going to be there.

I like cases to be attached to briefs or motions and highlighting is optional.

Attorneys or parties are notified of rulings on motions not made during the hearing by letter from the Court requesting an order be prepared, or by the return of the executed order, by the clerk, left with the Court at the time of hearing.

I always have a Court reporter

Trials

I will have numerous bench trials on tax cases and also occasionally on things out of other Courts. Occasionally I will have a tax case jury trial or by agreement I will hold jury trials out of any of the other civil courts. The ones out of the other courts are coordinated through the clerk or administrator.